CA Coast, Really Big Trees, and a Crystal-Hunting Story That Ended Well…Eventually

The Pacific Ocean at Last!

After three weeks at the campground in Ramona, CA, visiting, resting, and regrouping, we were on the road again and heading north. Traveling along the California Coast was lovely, with a stop for drinking in the scenery at Avila and Pismo Beaches. We found a campground near San Luis Obispo where we could park for the day, detached the rig, packed up the truck and headed for Morro Bay.

Avila Beach. RV’s park all along the road, but it’s “first come first served” and much too congested for my taste. A little further inland we found a campground with day parking that had more space and fewer…cliffs 😉

Daniel was so happy to get to climb some ROCKS! Avila Beach, CA

John is the Master of Leisure as he waits under a tree at the campground for the kids and me to pack into the truck all that we think we could possibly need on our day trip to Morro Bay. That takes time, but when people need something unexpectedly, they are really happy that Mom thought of it!

A Relaxing Day at Morro Bay

Morro Bay. The beauty and calm of this view sang peace to my soul that day. The folks below caught a shark!

A lovely way to celebrate Lilly’s 17th birthday. Pictured here is Morro Rock. Lilly is an avid rock collector, but this one was a little too big to fit into her pocket…

An Elfin Forest? That Sounds Cool!

After Morro Bay, we had some time before we had to be out of the lot at the campground, so we found an attraction nearby called “Elfin Forest”. With visions of Lord of the Rings and getting swallowed up by a LOTR-style magical forest in mind, we followed the GPS and found said “Elfin Forest.” Not quite what we were expecting, but the trail of boardwalks leading through the stunted shrubbery (the actual reason for the name) and the sunset over the water were actually pretty neat.

Elfin Forest. Being charter members of the Lord of the Rings Fandom, our kids had expected taller trees. Apparently, these “elves” were of the “Keebler” variety.

“Mountain King” Monterey Bay

Continuing north, we found a very nice RV Park in Gilroy, the “Garlic Capital of the World”. Sure enough, the smell of garlic wafted through our open windows. All. Night. Long. Good thing we like garlic!

We were thrilled to be able to connect with John’s cousin Shawn McSweeney, who accompanied us on a lovely outing to Pacific Grove at Monterey Bay. More rock climbing, lots of shell collecting, and of course, an amazing photo shoot with so many breathtaking sights of God’s creation all around.

The McSweeneys FINALLY get to put their feet into the Pacific Ocean!!

Pacific Grove at Monterey Bay. Hot up above but nice and cool down by the water. Perfect for investigating the colorful shells and seaweed–SO different from what washes up on the Atlantic beaches that we are used on back in Maryland and New Jersey!

John’s cousin Shawn McSweeney met us for the day. Here she is displaying the coolest piece of seaweed I have ever seen!

Next Bucket List Item: See the Redwoods!

We were a little slow to get moving the following day, but we made it to a local garlic shop in Gilroy and produce stand on our way down to Big Sur, an incredible scenic drive along the California coast.

Sarah is REALLY happy that we found some delicious local peaches at a roadside stand. Juicy and sweet!

Breathtaking view along Big Sur. We took our time to stop and take pictures and just enjoy. And I tried really hard to not have a heart attack when my husband insisted on standing on what looked like loose dirt at the edge of the cliff. How’d I do, Honey?

Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park

We were saddened to hear that landslides resulting from record amounts of rainfall during the previous rainy season had closed the lower part of Route 1 along the coast. Thankfully, we were still able to get to Pfeiffer Park and the two short but delightful trails that were open. The trees we encountered were not the largest Redwoods to be seen, but they were impressive and scratched an itch for adventure in all of us!

Johnny Mac FINALLY got to see his Redwoods!!! This long-held desire kept him going through many, many weeks of labor to get us out of Maryland. The victory is sweet!

A refreshing family time in this cool creek at Pfeiffer State Park among the Redwoods. With no agenda, we felt free to stop and play in the water. Activities included poking at floating leaves with the end of a stick, dropping increasingly larger rocks to see how big of a ploop you can produce, filling your pockets with pretty rocks for future jewelry-making, redirecting the current with your toes ballerina-style, stacking stones in the creek like a tower, and my favorite–taking pictures to capture and preserve this magical moment in time.

A picture to show their children! Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park, CA

OYANers Are Everywhere!

OYAN friends Christina and Julia met us at the RV Park in Gilroy for brunch on the morning of our departure. A brief but lively visit! And I learned how to light the gas stove for the first time 🙂

This is a somewhat random picture of all the things that did NOT fly out of our outdoor kitchen as we departed Gilroy and drove down the road with the hatch open! So thankful for the car that honked to let us know, and the angels that clung to all out stuff that whole mile!

Truckin’ to Truckee!

Ever since meeting and hitting it off with the Kent family at the 2016 OYAN Summer Workshop, we had planned to make their hometown of Truckee, CA, a mandatory stop on our RV adventure. As we saw the signs with the “miles to go” decreasing, our kids could barely contain their excitement. The sight of towering pines blanketing the mountains was comfort to my own heart after driving through so many miles of brown crispy brush.

TREES, glorious TREES! So happy to see this sight as we approached the Lake Tahoe area.

The long-awaited reunion with the Kent family in Truckee. The girls played and chatted to their hearts’ content on the floor of our RV bunkhouse.

This pine cone at Donner Pass Park near Lake Tahoe was more than half the size of Sarah–AMAZING!!

Sarah got a wonderful demo and lesson in making hot process soap with Mr. Kent. We even got to take some with us!

Hot soap! Thank you, Mrs. Kent, for the sacrifice of your crock pot! You people just get more and more awesomer 😉

John and Barry having male bonding at the grill. Is there any better way?

And Now That Story I Promised…

Let’s Go to Crystal Peak (take 1)

“Hey, I hear there is a fantastic crystal mine not far from here where you can collect BUCKETS of crystals!” Childlike excitement danced in Barry Kent’s eyes. “Wanna take the kids?”

“Sounds great!” John and I agreed.

“Cool!” said Barry, “I’ll lead the way!”

And thus began the adventure. Innocently and full of expectation for an afternoon collecting our fill of pretty rocks, pictures of nature, and memories that will stay with our two families for years to come. Well, one out of three’s not so bad 😉

So that afternoon Barry and his wife Audrey set out in their Toyota Tacoma. Their daughters, Delaney and Emma, along with our daughter Bethany rode in their back seat. John and I followed in our Ram 3500 Laramie. (Yes, in a minute you will want to know what kind of vehicles we were driving…)

With radio playing and kids singing, both trucks of teens and parents headed up the highway and crossed into Nevada. One day I will like Nevada. Maybe once I have a few more positive experiences there to speak of. A few minutes after passing the state line, we took an exit and turned up a road that did not appear to be well maintained. Barry pulled over, got out of his truck, and came to John’s window to say that we were going to go up a bit of an incline now, and the road might get a little bumpy. If we felt uncomfortable, we could honk or flash the lights and we would turn around.

Speaking of “bumpy”, I will mention here that our truck is built for hauling, not for comfort, hence my immediate purchase of a truckers’ style gel seat to absorb the road vibrations the first week John brought home the truck. But on the morning of this trip, SOMEone had gone for a ride in my seat, and had taken my seat cushion into the house. As we began to bump and bounce up the road, Lilly commented, “Bad time for Mom to be without her seat cushion!” Understatement of the year.

We were still singing and carrying on and taking videos of ourselves bouncing when ruts began to appear in the road. John had to hold tightly to the steering wheel and carefully navigate the most level surfaces of the road. Suddenly Barry stopped again. This time he walked ahead of his truck and began to lift and chuck large rocks off the road ahead of him. Hmmmm…I hoped there would not be too much of that needed…

When it seemed like the terrain was becoming worse instead of better, Barry stopped again, came to John’s window with a GPS in each hand to talk things over man-to-man. Barry wasn’t exactly sure where we were, but he hoped that the road was about to get better and it was not too much further to our destination. But we could turn back if we wanted to. Decision time.

Two men, two trucks with 4-wheel drive, and multiple GPS’s. What could go wrong??

Confident that we were just minutes away from BUCKETS of crystals, and just as much fun, we decided to plow forward. John was having such a happy heart about the whole episode and I told him how much that meant to me.

But even with the smiles between us, this was a decision that we would come to question rather seriously over the next 20-30 minutes as the road in fact did NOT improve, and there was no sign of any crystal mine in sight. We were now committed to this route as there was no place to turn around. In fact, the branches of the shrubs along the side of the road began to close in and I winced as we listened to them scraping along the side of John’s beautiful white truck.

John’s “happy heart” let out a few whimpers as he continued to weave through the hurdles, leaning forward in his seat and willing us to reach the other side of this difficult section of road. If you could actually call it a road at this point. The rocks had become so numerous that we appeared to be driving through something more like a streambed. Barry only stopped now to remove the largest of the rocks as we realized we’d need to keep moving if we hoped to be off of the mountain by nightfall.

At this point we decided we were no longer on a road, but had discovered a local streambed.

There comes a point in a rising crisis like this when your goal makes a shift. Suddenly buckets of crystals were the furthest thing from my mind and the thought struck me that we could possibly get stuck here on this mountain! I began to mentally list off our assets. One bottle of water per person, sweatshirts for the kids and me, one picnic blanket to fend off the cold… Oh my. Was there enough of a clearing through the trees for a helicopter to find us??

By the kindness of God, we never had to know what an emergency overnight or a rescue of our two families might entail. Finally the “road” we were on came to a “T”with a road that was significantly more level. We had made it out of danger! One last time, Barry stopped his truck. In one swift movement, he flung open the driver’s side door, leaped out, hurled himself onto the gravel, and embraced the safe, solid, rock and rut-free ground on behalf of all of us. We all jumped out, grabbing our cameras and laughing at the spectacle.

Enjoy the photos below and keep reading because I promised that the story ends well…

Barry’s sentiments were shared by us all.

All’s well that ends well. Barry pays homage the solid flat ground with even MORE enthusiasm than he had when he had talked up the BUCKETS of crystals!

And now the REST of the Story…

Let’s Go to Crystal Peak (take 2)

Over the next 24 hours, Barry and Audrey did a little homework researching a more accessible route to Crystal Peak and we tried again. This time we were also equipped with shovels, pick axes and BUCKETS. We were wiser and full of faith to find those crystals!

We finally made it to Crystal Peak, thanks to a little more research and an old fashioned paper map 😉

Crystal Mine was so cool! Look for Daniel at the top of the hill to the left of the tree.

Crystals!! OK, so not really buckets full, but they were pretty and we were happy 🙂

That’s all for this post. I hope that you found it “Authentic, Edifying, and Entertaining”. I have two more stories about parking our 42-foot monstrosity that I am excited to share next.

LOL, yes, they do! My poor husband has to go through all these near catastrophes and I’m just sitting there with an impish smile brainstorming for my next post 🙂 Hey, are you an OYANer? I’m trying to place you…

What amazing views of the California coast!! So glad you are experiencing so many varied adventures, seeing the Pacific Ocean, the redwoods, wading in streams (reminds me of my camp days in Girl Scouts), rock climbing, and best of all meeting and interacting with friends and relatives! Even your misadventure on the long and rocky road turned out well and made for a great story! Thanks for taking such beautfiul photos and writing such exciting accounts of your adventures. Praying for safety as you travel east.